The New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section fielded reports of four dog bites in recent weeks. The following summaries are based on NCPD incident reports obtained by NewCanaanite.com through Freedom of Information requests.
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A woman at about 11:47 a.m. on Sept. 22 contacted Officer Allyson Halm, head of Animal Control, saying that she’d been bitten the prior week by a Wheaten terrier she was caring for on West Road while the dog’s owners were away. The woman reported the bite after being told to do so by an attorney, according to a police report. The terrier had bitten her after a walk as she went to take its leash off, and she was treated at a Stamford facility, the report said. On Sept. 23, Halm visited the West Road home and discovered in speaking with the terrier’s owners, a married couple, that the dog had since been re-homed and adopted by a Plattsburgh, N.Y. man. In speaking to the couple, Halm learned that the dog sitter had been bitten by the terrier in the past and it hadn’t been reported. The West Road woman told Halm that when the dog sitter started caring for her Wheaten, “she felt that something was going on,” according to the report. After hiring the sitter a second time, the dog suffered a ligament tear and the couple installed cameras in the house, capturing the recent bite on video. Halm requested that police receive the video footage and tried to contact the terrier’s new owner in New York state. However, that man had given the dog away again when he found out that he’d need to pay to have the terrier examined by a veterinarian, the report said. A second owner, a Hurleyville, N.Y. man, did obtain a “health certificate” from a veterinarian in his area and supplied it to New Canaan Police, according to the case report.
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A Sleepy Hollow Road woman’s dog bit a young New Canaan boy at a park in Darien on Sept. 29, according to a case report. As the young boy ran past the dog, the beast “jumped up” and bit him on the upper left thigh, according to the report. Halm contacted the boy’s father, a Country Club Road resident. After the bite, the man had taken his son to an urgent care facility in Norwalk, where the boy received several sutures, the report said. Ultimately, the dog underwent a state-mandated off-site quarantine, at New Canaan Veterinary Hospital, and a vet there said the dog appeared to be in good health. The animal was up-to-date on his shots at the time of the bite, the incident report said.
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An electrician told Halm on Oct. 16 that he had been bitten by an Australian shepherd dog while working at a Briscoe Road home. The man told her “he was on the deck between the garage and the house when the dog owner lost control of her dog, at which time [he] received a bit to his right calf,” according to a case incident report. Halm viewed photos of abrasion and bruise, she said. The electrician told Halm that the dog’s owner was a very old woman and that she should contact her brother, the report said. She reached the brother and advised that she needed the Aussie’s rabies vaccination information and that the dog should undergo a quarantine. The animal was up-to-date and licensed, and the owner was advised that the dog must be “under control” when workers are on the property.
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A Stamford man on Nov. 1 told police through a language interpreter that a Drummond Lane dog bit him on the knee while he was operating a leaf blower in the area, according to a police report. In addressing the owners of the dog accused of the attack, Halm was told that though the animal had lunched at the worker, he was tethered in the yard and that one of his owners “stepped on the line to prevent the dog from going further.” A woman who owns the dog also denied that her pet could have caused the injury because he had short legs and did not lunge so high. The dog has a current rabies vaccination. The man with the leaf blower ultimately never told police whether he sought medical attention for his injuries. The dog underwent a state-mandated quarantine at home that ended Nov. 14.